By David Crystal

New from Cambridge University Press!

By Peter Mark Roget

This book "supplies a vocabulary of English words and idiomatic phrases 'arranged … according to the ideas which they express'. The thesaurus, continually expanded and updated, has always remained in print, but this reissued first edition shows the impressive breadth of Roget's own knowledge and interests."

''Language and politics in Africa: Contemporary issues and critical perspectives''is a collection of empirical, theoretical, and policy papers which document thestate of affairs in the interplay between language and politics across thecontinent today. The papers in the volume are organized into two broad thematicsections: Part One comprises nine papers dealing with the language of politicsin Africa, while Part Two offers seven papers discussing the politics oflanguage in Africa. The contributions, edited by Daniel Ochieng Orwenjo andJohn Obiero Ogone of Kenyatta and Maseno Universities, respectively, offer avariety of perspectives on ''the complex twin relationship between language andpolitics'' (p. x) in contemporary Africa, ranging from Jairos Kangira's analysisof four funeral speeches by Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe to Theo duPlessis' discussion of the repercussions for language policy of languagevisibility in the changing linguistic landscape of post-apartheid South Africa.

SUMMARY

In her foreword, Olive Mugenda, Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta University,acknowledges the centrality of language to the African political process andplaces the university support in the publication of this book in the context oflong-term development plans both for Kenyatta University itself and the countryof Kenya. In particular, she notes the international character of thecollaboration and its compatibility with ''the institutional aspirations ofKenyatta University'' (p. xii), i.e. an internationalization of the localscholarly endeavors, which goes some way towards the provision of an otherwiselacking rationale for this collection of papers.

In the opening article entitled '''Brown is saying nonsensical things, much moreidiotic than Blair': An analysis of hate language in political discourse used inZimbabwe,'' Rewai Makamani uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine therhetorical manipulations by the Mugabe regime during the 2008 election campaign. The article includes an extensive analysis of the political context which gaverise to the discourse under consideration. Makamani concludes that hatelanguage, mainly directed at Western leaders and the Zimbabwean opposition, wasmerely a device in the Mugabe regime's extensive rhetorical repertoire which wasused in this election campaign as a smoke screen for the regime's attempt tothwart a successful challenge by the opposition by any means necessary.

''Mugabe's graveside orations: Collective memory and nostalgia'' by Jairos Kangiracontinues the theme of the use of rhetoric in the Zimbabwean political discourseby analyzing the speeches given by President Mugabe at the state funerals forfour government and ruling party (ZANU PF) officials in 2001. Kangira'srhetorical analysis of the speeches focuses on Mugabe's recreation of thecollective memory of the anti-colonial struggle and the evocation of politicalnostalgia as ways to reframe the political debate and ''restore his politicalimage ahead of the 2002 presidential election'' (p. 26). It is concluded thatMugabe successfully appropriated the rhetorical context of the burials todeflect criticism from the opposition and recast himself and his party as theonly reliable political option for Zimbabwe.

Editor Daniel Ochieng Orwenjo's own contribution, ''Of shifting goal-posts andscoring own goals: Patterns of metaphorical language use in Kenya's politicaldiscourse,'' shifts the focus of analysis to metaphor and the Kenyan nationalpolitical campaigns of 2005 and 2007. Orwenjo employs corpus analysis tocalculate ''metaphor power indices'' (p. 69) and show that the use of metaphor inpolitical discourse serves as a device for the manipulation of electorate'semotions; intensifies during campaigns and crises; and can have undesirednon-linguistic consequences such as violence.

The fourth article, ''Turning to indigenous languages for increased citizenparticipation in politics and the African development process'' by SangaiMohochi, deals with the essence of language policy in post-independence Africanstates: the choice of language(s) for nation-building and development. Mohochirightly argues that the continuing reliance on ex-colonial European languagesprevents the majority of the electorate from participating in the politicalprocess, and has detrimental effects on development in general, proposing as asolution a greater reliance on autochthonous African languages, and those spokenacross ethnic lines in particular. Although this argument is not new and hasreceived more attention than Mohochi seems to imply, this is a useful overviewof the issue, which would have been further strengthened by the inclusion ofsome standard references in the field (e.g. Djité 2008; Mazrui & Mazrui 1998;Myers-Scotton 1990; Prah & King 1998).

Lilian Lem Atanga, in her article ''Gendered differences in parliamentary talk inCameroon,'' looks at how language is used by female and male MPs during twoparliamentary sessions in 2005. The results confirm the findings of previousresearch: female MPs are verbally marginalized, speak much less often and takeshorter turns, and are generally alone in drawing attention to gender-relatedissues, both in parliament and in society. Ironically, Atanga's is the onlycontribution by a female author in this volume which also happens to be the onlyone to discuss gender-related issues.

In ''Nigerian military coup announcements as political discourse -- a pragmaticanalysis,'' Angulu Samson Abaya and Aliyu Mohammed focus on the use of speechacts in two of a total of seven coup announcements made by the Nigerian militarybetween 1966 and 1993. The findings indicate that coup announcements are ''acomposite of military and political language'' (p. 179), featuring speech actstypical of both military (e.g. command, threat) and political (e.g. promise)discourse.

Similarly to Makamani's article discussed above, ''Media argumentation in theKenyan 2007 political elections: Manufacturing of ethnic hate'' by Wendo Nabeaexamines the role of the media in the production and dissemination of politicaldiscourse in an election campaign and its aftermath. Nabea uses CDA to analyzea corpus of 80 texts derived from various media such as radio, TV, textmessages, and the Internet. He concludes that the media were largely misused ina political game of demonization of opponents along ethnic lines, whichultimately contributed to the spread of vicious post-election ethnic violence.

Also Richard I. C. Tambulasi's article ''Political discourse and electioneering:Reflections on Malawi's May 2009 elections'' investigates the impact of language,and more specifically, political discourse employed during an election campaign,on elections results. A significant finding here is that Malawi'sethnolinguistic groups, which usually vote along ethnic lines, seem for thefirst time since 1994 to have broken this pattern. Tambulasi concludes that,compared to the incumbent president Mutharika's, the persuasive power of theopposition parties' political discourse was so weak that it did not even manageto win votes in their own ethnic groups.

The final contribution in Part One, ''Mytho-linguistic construction of Gĩkũyũcultural identity and political implications for nationalism in multi-culturalKenya'' by Michael Wainaina, departs from the overarching theme of the section byoffering an anthropological analysis of Gĩkũyũ mythology and its potential as aunifying principle in Kenyan national politics. Cognizant of the destructivepotential of ethnolinguistic exclusivity, Wainaina seeks to redefine Gĩkũyũtribal mythology and open it up to other communities in order to create aninclusive cultural space at the national level.

Part Two, as noted, examines the politics of language, and more specifically,various language-related policies in a number of countries across the continent. Etienne Smith's opening contribution, ''The 'informal' politics of linguisticpluralism: The case of Senegal,'' highlights the rather atypical phenomenon ofsuccessful development of language policy 'from below', whereby the majorityautochthonous language and lingua franca of Senegal, Wolof, has increasinglychallenged the hegemony of French as the country's only official language solelydue to its popularity among the masses. For Smith, the main reason for thissurprising development lies in the popular disengagement from a weakeningfrancophone state, i.e. a shrinking public administration and formal economy,which gave precedence to the informal economy and effectively opened up spacefor 'Wolofisation'. Interestingly, Smith finds that Wolof is being appropriatedby minority linguistic communities such that Wolofisation does not in factrepresent a danger to the linguistic pluralism of Senegal, although,paradoxically, this process ultimately depends on the state's insistence on theofficial status of French as an assertion of its ethnolinguistic neutrality.

In the second article in Part Two, ''Language, ethnic minorities, and radio inSouth Africa: A human rights approach'', Last Moyo examines the role of radio inthe implementation of the constitutional provision warranting linguisticequality for all racial and ethnic groups in South African society. Althoughthe post-apartheid constitution recognizes all of the country's eleven majorlanguages as official and also provides for the protection of minoritylinguistic communities, the status of most indigenous languages in the media hasbeen limited to symbolic equality as public and commercial broadcasters havecatered either to majority communities or lucrative niche markets. According toMoyo, community radio stations, despite increasing financial difficulties due todwindling donor funds and certain ideological issues, have been an exception asthey have sought to provide locally relevant content in the languages of theirlocal communities, offering a platform for non-mainstream political expressionand cultural maintenance.The eclectic approach to language-related policies in contemporary Africa inthis section continues with Charles O. Ong'ondo and Julius O. Jwan's''Contemporary issues in language teacher education and their implications onpolicy in Kenya.'' After presenting an extensive overview of current issues inlanguage teacher education (LTE), Ong'ondo and Jwan turn towards the end of thepaper to their own national context, arguing for a sociocultural approach to andthe adoption of the reflective model of LTE in Kenya. Arguably, though, thecontribution would have been more effective had it devoted more space to thediscussion of the implications of LTE in the Kenyan context relative to thegeneral theoretical issues in LTE.

Peter R. Petrucci's ''Debating Angolanidade online: The lingua-politics ofclaiming authority in discussions of Angolan language policy'' is anothercontribution which relies on CDA. Based on an innovative methodologicalapproach, Petrucci offers an in-depth analysis of a selection of comments fromangonoticias.com, an Angolan news website, posted in response to a series ofeighteen articles about a 2004 language-in-education policy, i.e. the inclusionof six national languages in the primary school curriculum in addition toPortuguese. The online debate revolved around the question which language(s)best embodied ‘angolanidade’ (Angolanness), with a majority of participantsadvocating either the-colonial-turned-official-language Portuguese, or one ormore national languages. Petrucci finds that the debate, although subtle, washighly politicized and dominated by ethnolinguistic tensions which derive fromthe postcolonial Angolan legacy of mistrust and conflict, as well as, perhapsunsurprisingly, that the high-tech contexts of language use (e.g.computer-mediated communication) favor Portuguese over national languages.

Post-apartheid South African language policy has since its formulation receivedmuch attention on account of its commitment to multilingualism. However, manyscholars now argue that its effects have been mostly symbolic due to a lack ofpolitical will for full implementation (e.g. Bamgboṣe 2003; Mesthrie 2008; Orman2008). In his contribution ''Language visibility as factor in language policyand practice in South Africa,'' Theodorus du Plessis examines the implications offormal policy commitment to multilingualism for the linguistic landscape and thestandardization of geographical names in South Africa. The findings, based onan analysis of practice by standardizing and governing bodies such as the SouthAfrican Geographical Names Council (SAGNC) and the Pan South African LanguageBoard (PanSALB), include a trend towards an Africanization of the linguisticlandscape in general and geographical names in particular, a reduced visibilityof Afrikaans in most domains, as well as a perpetuation of apartheid policy ofmonolingualism in the public space, especially with respect to public signs.

In ''The national language policy implementation and experience: The case ofKiswahili in the parliament of Kenya,'' James Ogola Onyango continues the themeof language choice in postcolonial African states by focusing on the dilemmabetween vernacularization and internationalization, and between Kiswahili andEnglish in the case of the Kenyan parliament. Onyango reminds that Kiswahilireplaced English as the sole language of parliamentary business by presidentialdecree, and was used as such between 1974 and 1979. His analysis of the morerecent linguistic practices in the parliament, however, shows that English hassince largely resumed its previous role and that Kiswahili and English nowcoexist in a diglossic relationship in which English is the 'high' variety andKiswahili the 'low'.

The final contribution, ''The development of Kabiye and its status as one of the'national' languages of Togo'' by David Roberts, presents Kabiye's historicaltrajectory over the past eighty years, putting special emphasis on its failedimposition (with Ewe) as one of the two national languages of Togo. Roberts'thesis is that the development of Kabiye, especially in its written form, hasclosely paralleled the sociopolitical developments in the country, whereby thecolonial-period migration of its speakers to other parts of the country and theKabiye ethnic background of the former longtime dictator Gnassingbé Eyadéma wereamong the most important factors. Regrettably, the article includes the wrongreferences section, which seems to be entirely unrelated to the referencesactually used in the text.

EVALUATION

This volume presents the reader with an eclectic collection of papers that go along way towards painting an accurate and detailed picture of the main issues inthe language of politics and the politics of language in contemporary Africa. Virtually all contributions are richly contextualized and very informative,which makes them particularly suitable for readers looking for an entry pointinto the subject matter. A variety of disciplinary approaches adds interest tothe volume and is certain to appeal to a wide audience in applied linguisticsand beyond, while the diversity of the authors' regional backgrounds providesfor a solid coverage of and relevance to the different parts of the continent. In addition, the topic treatments are current in terms of both theory and methodas well as socially engaged, reflective and adequately critical. Particularlynoteworthy, as Vice-Chancellor Mugenda observes in her foreword, is theopportunity this volume offers for the contributing young African scholars.

Although commendable for the effort expended, this volume also exhibits a numberof surprising deficiencies and oversights. For example, it is customary for theeditors of a collection such as this one to provide a rationale for it in anintroductory chapter; Orwenjo and Ogone, however, do not, and thus leave thereader guessing. In a further sign of editorial (and perhaps also publisher's)inattention, most contributions exhibit orthographic and grammatical errors, aswell as a cavalier attitude toward academic conventions, while the volume as awhole fails to follow a formatting standard, especially in referencing. Thevolume would also have profited from a more thoughtful ordering of contributionsas some (e.g. Mohochi, pp. 82-123) would fit better in a different section, orelse are not grouped together with thematically similar contributions within asection, both of which would have contributed to the clarity of purpose as wellas aided understanding. Finally, the difference in quality between individualcontributions, at times considerable, results in an uneven presentation whichdetracts from the overall impression of the volume.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER:
Adnan Ajsic is a PhD student in the Applied Linguistics Program at Northern
Arizona University. Adnan's research interests include issues in language
policy and planning pertaining to polycentric languages, as well as
postcolonial and post-Communist societies, the cultural political economy
of English as a global lingua franca, language and identity in diasporic
contexts, and individual differences in ultimate attainment in adult SLA.